Chung, GoopeelDewan, Prasun2017-04-152017-04-152001978-0-306-48019-5Current application-sharing systems support a single architecture for all collaborations, though different systems support different architectures. We have developed a system that support a wide rage of architectural mappiongs, which include to the best of our knowledge, all of the existing architectures defined so far including the centralized, replicated and hybrid architecrues. Instead of being bound to a specific I/O protocol such as the X protocol, it is based on a simple abstract I/O protocol to which specific I/O protocols must be mapped by client-suppled code. We have used the system to perform experiments that compare the performance of the centralized and replicated architectures. Our experiments show that the chioce of the architecure depends on the computers used by the collaborators, the speed of the connections between the computers and the cost of the operations performed by the shared application. Under some conditions the centralized architecture gives better performance. Our results contradict the popular blief that the replicated architecture always gives better performance, and show the need fore supporting both architectures in a system.enText10.1007/0-306-48019-6